124 BOARD OF AGRICULTURE. [Pub. Doc. 



hands. Salt is never used, — at least not at the farm dairy 

 where churning is done. In cleaning the churn at the final 

 rinsing, a bunch of the common nettle plant ( Uirtica urens)^ 

 fresh or dried, is shaken about in the churn. Xo reason is 

 given for this, except that it has always been done ; yet some, 

 on being pressed, say they think it helps to cleanse the churn, 

 and others that it " makes the butter come." The churning 

 seems to be exhaustive and the butter is generally well made, 

 although rather over-worked. Xo fat testing is known, and 

 no means exist of telling whether fat losses occur in the skim 

 milk and buttermilk. These by-products are, however, 

 always judiciously fed to calves or pigs. The milk room is 

 sometimes large enough to accommodate the churn and 

 churning, but ordinarily this work and the general dairy 

 cleaning is done in an adjoining room, where there are pro- 

 visions for a fire, and a set kettle. The premises and uten- 

 sils are usually kept very clean : the work is done by women, 

 and there is no stinting of labor. There is no scientific 

 practice or study of problems involved ; all is done accord- 

 ing to traditional rules and habit : vet the average butter of 

 Normandy is well made and good of its kind. 



Twice a week the farmers' wives or daughters take the 

 butter to market at the neighboring town or village. It is 

 prepared early in the morning, formed into big lumps, 

 wrapped closely in large, coarse linen cloths, and put into 

 wicker baskets of the shape of a flower pot. This form or 

 lump of butter is called a matte. If quite warm, the mottes 

 are made smaller than the baskets, and between cloth and 

 basket the space is filled with clean, unbroken wheat straw. 

 Straw is drawn over the top, unless the basket has a good 

 cover. These baskets vary in size, and the mottes of butter 

 weigh (net) from 8 or 10 to 50 or 60 pounds. They are 

 carried to market in the one-horse farm road cart common 

 to all western Europe, or in a smaller donkey cart of similar 

 pattern, or in paniers on a saddle animal. From 10 o'clock 

 until noon on the proper days, the roads leading to the 

 market towns are tilled with the neatly and plainly dressed 

 country women of Normandy, carrying their butter to the 

 sale. 



